In performing a supine press, a lifter, who has assumed a supine position on a bench press stand, grasps the bar of a barbell supported in the overhead cradle of the stand, and, with elbows extended or alongside the body, presses straight up. After the barbell has been pressed overhead until the arms are completely extended, the barbell is lowered back onto the cradle, or down to the chest. If the barbell is lowered to the chest, raising it again from that position is termed a two-arm bench press.
Usually, a lifter works with a spotter, i.e., in a buddy system together with another person who is capable of relieving the lifter of the barbell or assisting the lifter in returning the bar to the cradle when, through injury, fatigue brought on by the number of bench press repetitions, or excess of optimism as to the amount of weight that the lifter can bench press from a supine position, the lifter unassisted is not at the moment capable of escaping unassisted from under.
Because sometimes a lifter, despite being aware of the risk, practices bench pressing, at least occasionally, without a spotter, or with a spotter who has become temporarily distracted with doing something else, the lifter becomes stuck with a barbell that they can no longer return to the cradle, the occasion for injury and/or damage exists. Others have attempted to solve this problem in many ways, mostly by providing variously shaped and positioned accessories mounted at the sides to the bench press stand. Typical prior art proposals include a lower cradle located on the stand at mid-chest, or similarly located ramps.
Stand-mounted assisting devices of the prior art tend to be bench-specific, i.e., they are made to be used only on a specific bench press stand, and may require modifications to be made to the stand, such as drilling holes in its frame members, possibly to the detriment of the structural integrity of the stand. With most of these designs, it is an assumption that the lifter gets in trouble when the barbell has a narrow range of location; using them, there is no way for a lifter to extricate their stomach, pelvic and/or thigh areas from under the barbell bar.
Also, the fact that the bench-mounted extrication facilitating devices are located where they are, can cause them to interfere with desired full downward extension of the lifter's arms as the barbell bar is lowered just below contact with the chest as should occur in routine bench pressing repetitions. Use of these prior art devices also may necessitate that the lifter pause to regain sufficient strength, before extricating theirself by doing some work against gravity, meanwhile fighting off the natural tendencies to panic or despair.
The bulkiness of the bench-mounted prior art devices no doubt contributes to their expense, and tends to cause them to lack portability. It is not really feasible for a lifter to pack one in a workout tote bag and take it along for their own temporary use at a training facility which is also used by others and does not already have an extrication facilitating device.